Ptcha and stuff

[bloviatrix]

Other delis:

Noah's Ark on Grand (haven't been there yet)

Mr. Broadway (b'way & 37th)

Mendy's (multiple locations - 34th btw Mad and Park, the Galleria, Rockefeller Center concourse, and Grand Central Terminal)

All are kosher under orthodox supervision, therefore closed for the sabbath.

I'm not sure if any serve p'tcha. But they're all quite traditional - with the requisite surly waiters.

Edited December 11, 2003 by bloviatrix (log)

[herbacidal]

is ptcha the same as kascha?

[bloviatrix]

is ptcha the same as kascha?

P'tcha is jellied calves feet. Kasha is buckwheat groats. The only thing they have in common is that old jews like to eat both.

[jogoode]

richw,

P'Tcha rules! My father makes it at home. I should document the process and put it in the recipegullet. Other than calves feet, there's a lot of garlic, salt and pepper. He eats it with dijon mustard.

Yes! We need the recipe!

[Fat Guy]

Some NY Deli and related-establishment Web sites, many of which offer online menus:

- Katz's

- Artie's

- Second Avenue

- Carnegie

- Stage

- Barney Greengrass

- Russ & Daughters

- Mill Basin

- Sarge's

- Mendy's

- Noah's Ark

- Mr. Broadway

- Ben's

- Wolf's

Couldn't find sites for Sammy's Roumanian, Pastrami Queen, or Ben's Best (Rego Park), but I'm sure you can find menus on various third-party sites.

(Note, Mill Basin also has a major collection of original works by Erte, and two of the Mendy's branches have WiFi.)

[herbacidal]

is ptcha the same as kascha?

P'tcha is jellied calves feet. Kasha is buckwheat groats. The only thing they have in common is that old jews like to eat both.

what are groats?

[Jason Perlow]

Toasting the buckwheat prior to making kasha is definitely the secret for enhancing the overall quality of the finished product.  I also recommend using coarse ground kasha instead of fine. 

Re. toasting: Correct, o Wise One.

Its not just the toasting, though. The groats should be cooked in chicken stock and the onions in it should be cooked in schmaltz. And it should have egg noodle bowties, not farfalle.

Kasha for me means Kasha Varnishkes, baby. I can eat my weight in it easy.

[Fat Guy]

Groats is a general English-language term for hulled crushed grain (like grits, but coarser, some will tell you). Buckwheat groats are called kasha in Jewish-American deli nomenclature; the term kasha comes from Russian via Yiddish. Although, in the old country, kasha could refer to other kinds of grains too. Kasha varnishkes is the dish in which you're most likely to see kasha utilized on a Jewish-American deli menu, though you might also see, for example, a kasha knish.

[Jason Perlow]

- Sarge's

Wow. They even pride themselves on serving non-kosher items.

SARGE's serves non-kosher items too... bacon, ham, shrimp, and even real pork spareribs.

[Fat Guy]

Yeah, you'll see the word "kosher" in the names of many of these establishments, yet a lot of them sell non-kosher items, and that's just if you look at the names of individual ingredients. Then there's the issue of serving meat and dairy items together, which most of the big delis do. On top of that, most of them are non-kosher in the sense that all but a few don't have rabbinical supervision, and the ones that do have rabbinical supervision may not have supervision that orthodox folks would consider legitimate (in other words they are not "glatt kosher" as that term has come to be, in my opinion questionably, utilized). And then there's the open-on-Saturday issue, which is a no-no under orthodox rules as well (aka not "shomer shabbat").

[richw]

richw,

P'Tcha rules! My father makes it at home. I should document the process and put it in the recipegullet. Other than calves feet, there's a lot of garlic, salt and pepper. He eats it with dijon mustard.

Yes! We need the recipe!

I will have it posted by next week.

[richw]

Toasting the buckwheat prior to making kasha is definitely the secret for enhancing the overall quality of the finished product.  I also recommend using coarse ground kasha instead of fine. 

Re. toasting: Correct, o Wise One.

Its not just the toasting, though. The groats should be cooked in chicken stock and the onions in it should be cooked in schmaltz. And it should have egg noodle bowties, not farfalle.

Kasha for me means Kasha Varnishkes, baby. I can eat my weight in it easy.

I agree on all points. Personally, I prefer the kasha sans pasta, but when it's being prepared for guests i feel the pasta is necessary. My onions get doused in evoo.